-- To skip this introduction use the right pull-down menu that links to the single level how-to's --
YES, you've come to the right place, this is the original single-player guide to everything Descent. Recently quite some people mailed me wondering about a couple of (more or less cheaper) D3 walkthrough sites. This is the one I started immediately after the release of each version (demo1, demo2, Sol Ascent, full version, Mercenary) and I don't know either why others come up with their sites weeks/months/years after my initial release especially as they do not have anything to offer besides old info. So please mail and ask them instead of me. Thanks!Here I put up all info you could possibly need to complete the D3. However, I'm NOT offering screenshots of every little corner you got to pass by on your way to something. The GB's enhanced abilities in D3 (he leads you *everywhere* and always tells you what to do next) renders this kind of giving waypoints totally useless. If you still wanna have something to explore yourself but still need help (maps & screenshots) on all difficult scenes go on reading below. Due to public demand I go a little more into detail than I usually planned; however, it was less work to grab out all my old hitherto unused stuff and put them up rather answer all questions via mail ;). Click on the links throughout the text to get pop up (map)-screenshots with vital information (Please enable JavaScript to make these popups run properly).
important note for international version players
If you start up Descent 3 1.0 on a German computer (or with any other country settings different to US American) you get the message "Sorry, your computer has a language not supported by this version of Descent 3" and the game stops. This is a "feature" that interplay wanted to be in the game. Noone excatly knows why (Interplay didn't even bother to clarify it ignoring the tons of questions on alt.games.descent and elsewhere) but it seems they didn't want to risk that the game would be forbidden in Gemany... which nicely enough shows that those buggers do not have a bit of a clue whatsoever!!! Anyway, it has been fixed in the 1.1 patch by Outrage.
I recorded them on a limited framerate so they become significantly smaller. The backshot of which is that a replay on frame unlimited systems makes the demos almost too fast to watch. Thus I suggest you limit the FPS for demo viewing purposes, you can easily switch back to normal afterwards. To limit frame time open the D3 launcher and select setup | misc | optional D3 command line switches and add -framecap 30. Sorry for the inconvenence but I guess anyone will prefer this over larger demos and extended download time.
using items in D3
Considering some postings on alt.games.descent obviously a lot of people were confused by the "use item"-feature introduced with D3. IMO it totally adds to the game and makes up for some nice puzzles. Contrary to the previous installments you have to use certain items explicitly by pressing the key bound to this function. Check out your keyboard configuration and assign the keys you want to use. Additionally you should enable the inventory listing in the HUD settings, so you can see wether the item you need is currently selected; if it's not just cycle through the items you've picked up.